Anxiety
by Sovenxas
Summary: As Seifer would grab the front of Hayner's black singlet and push him up against the nearest possible surface, staring at him with angry, crystal blue eyes, Hayners face would heat up fiercely, and his body would start trembling slightly...
1. Are You Ready

**Anxiety**

**Okay so this is the prologue, it's really crappy but whatever. The plot probably won't get "interesting" till about chapter….two.. if I'm lucky =_=;**

**The title is loosely based on the song "Anxiety – by the Black eyed peas and Papa Roach" and the rest of the chapters will be named after songs I think really fit them. **

**DISCLAIMER: As much as I'd love to own the rights to these lameoid characters of Kingdom Hearts, unfortunately I don't -insert majorly sad emoticon here-. All rights belong to Square Enix and Disney.**

**They won't even let me own Sora.. I mean C'MONNN, he's not like, THAT important! It's not like he's the main character of the majority of the kh games or anything so whyyyy won't they let me have him Dx (The amount sarcasm in that which cannot be heard over the internet is incomprehensible)**

**Damn Selfish Bastards. I have a mind to shove Soras Crabclaw Keyblade right up their big fat-**

**AND ON WITH THE STORY**

**Prologue: Are you ready **- Three Days Grace "_So you think you know how this story goes, are you ready for this_?"

Ever since he had known Seifer, Hayner had absolutely loathed him.

There was just something about the way he walked and talked that would really get on Hayners nerves. Even the way he wore his stupid black 'Ore' beanie, which, somehow, gave away so much about Seifer's personality with one simple word* irritated him

Cocky, obnoxious, over confident.

If Hayner had to describe Seifer in 3 words, those would be his choice of words without a doubt.

Even though Hayner himself had a bit of a reputation for being too stubborn and headstrong, as far as he was concerned, his faults were minor in comparison to Seifer's.

And yet despite that, he couldn't help but be mesmerised by him.

Aside from the obvious hatred towards him, Hayner just could not comprehend what the other feelings that would stir up inside him fiercely whenever he so much as glanced towards the older boy were.

He had never felt those particular sensations before in his life, and the fact that he didn't know what they were would irritate him to the point of lashing out at Seifer aggressively to help vent the frustration. Which, inevitably, had the opposite effect.

As Seifer would grab the front of Hayner's black singlet and push him up against the nearest possible surface, staring at him with angry, crystal blue eyes, Hayners face would heat up fiercely, and his body would start trembling slightly, although Hayner would always shake it off as being caused by his frustration towards the older blonde, and the feelings Hayner had been desperately trying to rid himself of, would in fact worsen.

After Hayner begun to realise that his current tactics were failing, he decided that avoiding Seifer as much as possible seemed like a good approach.

This proved to be a difficult task for Hayner, and all his efforts seemed pointless after one day…..

* * *

"Okay class, due to a large amount of requests, you will be given new seating arrangements from this day forward!"

Everyone the senior class at Twilight Town's local (and only) school, murmured excitedly, including Hayner himself.

Due to the town's small population, there was only a need for one school, which consisted of only 42 students. The school had been split between 2 classes because of this, the junior class, which children aged five to twelve were in, and the senior class. This consisted of students aged 13 to 18. However, once most of the students reached 18, they would leave Twilight Town in pursuit of their dreams or enrol at a university in another city. Few would stay and find work in their hometown.

And because of the less than average amount of "seniors" in the school, ultimately, Hayner was forced to be in the same class as his much hated rival; Seifer Almasy.

Hayner glanced at his three best friends, Roxas, Pence and the only female in his group, Olette, and grinned. Roxas, catching his eye, grinned back exuberantly. They had been four of the main contributors to the "requests" about changing seats the teacher had been demanded and were now hoping wishfully that they would all be seated together. As the teacher called out their names to go out to the front desk and pull out a number from a box which would determine their new seats, Hayner noticed that Seifer, who happened to be sitting several seats in front of him, seemed to be staring at him. "What?" He asked, unnerved. Seifer, looking bored, with his hand under his chin supporting his head, said casually "I was just thinking about how bogus it would be to have to sit next to a chickenwuss like you". Flustered, Hayner managed to retort curtly "Oh yeah? I could say the same about you, you Jerkoff" Seifer rolled his eyes and smirked. "Nice comeback blondie" Hayner glared at him. "Have you looked in a mirror recently? In case you haven't noticed, you're blonde too.. Although I'd try to avoid mirrors as much as possible too if I were as ugly as you. Idiot." Seifer, clearly angered by Hayners harsh words, stood up suddenly, knocking over his chair and surprising the rest of the class and even the teacher herself, who had all been too involved in their very skittish conversations about the new seating arrangements to notice the reasonably loud argument between the two class hot-heads previously. "You'd better watch what you say lamer," his frown suddenly turned into a mocking grin "Besides.. Who was the_ idiot _that only managed to score 16% on his last test?" Hayner was about to reply when he was distracted by a giggle. He turned around to face Olette, who was now doubled over in laughter at something quite oblivious to everyone else. At this point, the entire class's focus was on Olette, including Hayner and Seifer, who seemed to have forgotten all about their argument due to the unexpected response they got from the disruptive scene they were causing.

Seifer frowned at her in perplexity "What's so funny?" The obviously extremely entertained girl glanced at Hayner, whose face mirrored Seifers, then at Seifer, before returning her gaze to Hayner again.

She had finally stopped laughing, but the massive grin on her face remained "Sorry, don't mind me".

Seifer and Hayner glanced at each other, eyebrows raised in bewilderment then returned their weary gaze to Olette. "How could we possibly NOT mind you when you're laughing like that?" Before Olette could reply, the teacher suddenly spoke up "Alright enough of that, let's continue with the seat arrangements".

Hayner slumped forward in his chair, pouting angrily, waiting for his name to be called.

"Hayner Bardus" Hayner leapt out of his chair swiftly and rushed to the teachers desk, eagerly putting his hand in the hole in the top of the box which contained the desk numbers and grabbed the first piece of paper he could get a hold of, pulling it out hastily.

He beamed as he realised he had drawn his lucky number; 18. Pence came bounding up behind him, with Roxas and Olette following, impatiently asking Hayner what number he had gotten. Both his and Roxas' face sunk as they realised they wouldn't be sitting together, or anywhere near each other for that matter, Roxas had gotten seat number 9, 2 rows in front of Hayner. And poor Pence had gotten an unlucky 3, which meant he would be sitting dead smack in front of the teacher.

Olette and Hayner grinned in sync when they discovered they would be sitting next to each other, as she had gotten number 19. The four friends jumped when they heard a loud bang, evidentially caused by an outraged Rai, who had apparently gotten number 2, the seat right next to Pence, also in front of the teacher. As If being separated from his two _beloved_ companions Fuu and Seifer whom he had ALWAYS sat with up til that day (It had always striked Hayner as being odd how they had somehow managed to be seated together EVERYTIME the class was made to change seats) weren't enough, he was forced to sit up the very front, in a place where causing trouble and bludging were impossible. Rai wasn't the only one complaining, the other students were also upset to learn this, as Rai sitting in the front row would make it very difficult for them to see the board, due to his large and bulky frame. Fuu and Seifer were also trying to convince the teacher to solve the issue, but despite their best efforts, the teacher refused to allow him to change seats. "If Rai changes seats, then all the other students who weren't happy with their new seats will want to change as well".

Hayner, Olette and Roxas all turned their heads to face a very pale Pence, with pity written all over their faces. They all muttered words of encouragement and reassurance as he staggered towards his new seat in shock. As the last few students pulled out their numbers from the box of fate, the other students who had already gotten numbers, began to organise themselves and settle in their new seats. Hayner and Olette sat at their new seats, Olette looking quite satisfied, but Hayner frowning. He leaned over and whispered "So what was all that about earlier?" she blinked at him, trying to hide a smile "What are you talking about?" "You know damn well what I'm talking about Olette! What_ was_ that?"

The brunette seemed to find his curiosity amusing, and seemed hesitant to tell him what it was she found so hysterical before. After a moment of awkward silence between them, she gave in and explained it to him; Well you know, seeing you and Seifer fight like that… it's like you were an old married couple or something.." She averted her eyes from Hayner's face, which had gone from being expressionless due to shock, to disbelief of the immensely retarded statement she had conducted, and finally, bright red with embarrassment.

"Hey Lamer, mind moving your bag so I can sit down" Hayner froze. He could recognise that voice anywhere. He turned around slowly and stared at the blonde bully who seemed to tower over him, in extreme horror. "What… did you just say?" Hayner asked anxiously "I SAID: move your stupid bag out of my way. I would like to sit down if that's okay with you" he replied impatiently.

Hayner stared at him in astonishment. "You're kidding!"

" 'fraid not lamer. Looks like I'm stuck sitting next to you."

Time seemed to stop as soon as Seifer had finished speaking that sentence.

Hayner felt like his entire body had turned into stone.

"NO! THIS CAN _**NOT**_ BE HAPPENING!" He mentally screamed to himself.

Seifer stared back at him, amazed by the amount of wrinkles Hayner had been able to conjuncture on his scrunched up face. "Hey lamer, what's with the face? You constipated or something"

Olette chuckled amusedly as Hayner slammed his forehead against his desk in despair.

And from that day forward, Hayner's plan of avoiding Seifer was shattered.

* Seifer's beanie has the Kanji for "Ore" which is the informal, masculine way of saying "I" in Japanese. It can generally mean the speaker considers himself to be superior.

**I know what you guys are most likely thinking "Oh fabulous, one of those totally lame and stereotypical stories with the whole 'the-two-boys-bicker-trivially- until- they- both-realise-their-feelings-for-each-other-fuck-like-energiser-bunnies-until-their-insanely-high-level-sex-drive-calms-down-which-will-most-likely-be-NEVER!"**

**But trust me it's not! *nods ferociously in an attempt to convince myself and whoever reads this that this fanfic will NOT turn into a stereotypical story with a plot like the one mentioned earlier* **

**Well I'm planning on involving a crazy ass, mentally unstable mother who thinks her son is her dead husband (OH GOD WHAT THE DIL? – trust me there's no… er.. incestness? O_o) and an unintentional and unknowing rebellion against Kelloggs master plan to lower the sex drive in horny teenage boys*. **

***Here's a fun sex fact, courtesy of my best friends ipod touch sex facts app, did you know cornflakes have an ****Anaphrodisiac**** in them that lowers the sex drive.**

**Staying awake till 5 47 am makes a certain someone write hella weird and unnecessary intro whatsits. Bear with me peoples **

**Oh by the way, Hayners last name means "fool" in Latin apparently… fits him pre' well dontcha think? ;) **

**NIGHT GUYS **


	2. Opinions won't keep you warm at night

**Chapter One **

**Opinions won't keep you warm at night** – Kisschasey: "_Can't you see you're being weak? It's shallow and dark you know every time you speak, You're just lying through your teeth__"_

The argument that Seifer and Hayner had had during the day they had gotten new seats turned out to be a regular routine after that. They seemed to constantly bicker, no matter how trivial the reason.

Hayner tried his best to ignore the giggling which came from Olette whenever they fought. But he couldn't get the mental image of Seifer and himself as an old married couple. The thought made him shudder.

The sad truth of the matter was, that Seifer did indeed make Hayner feel like an old man. Their constant quarrelling was starting to wear Hayner out. He was in his third year in the senior class. Which meant he would have to work a hell of a lot harder than he had in the previous years, academics wise.

And being constantly agitated by a certain someone was making it hard for Hayner to concentrate on his work, whether he be in class (currently his least favourite place to be) sitting next to the "bastard", or even at home. His mind was constantly filled with nasty thoughts revolving around Seifer.

His friends had noticed the sudden change in his attitude as well. Sure Hayner had always had a bit of an attitude problem, but recently it had gotten much worse.

He would incessantly snap and get frustrated at pretty much everything. He had never hated anyone so much in his life. And yet, at the same time, those confusing feelings would persistently continue to arise within him whenever he thought of Seifer.

His concerned friends felt the need to try to make Hayner forget about Seifer, even if just for a little bit.

Which turned out to be easier than expected, as Hayner was an easily distracted boy.

They had agreed that their best bet at cheering him up would be to go to the beach, which happened to be located in the mainland, about a 25 minute long trip from their current location.

And so, one afternoon after school, the four friends decided to head off to the beach, determined to actually make it there (somehow they never managed to make it to the beach, as something would always seem to come up, preventing them from going).

The four friends met up at the Sandlot, and after making sure they all had everything required for their trip, the group began walking towards the train station, when Pence stopped in his tracks and began racing back to their base (which, luckily for him, was close by). "I've forgotten my camera!" He yelled "I'll be back in a sec" Pence never went anywhere aside from school without his camera, so he hurried over to the base) to retrieve it.

Roxas, Hayner and Olette were still chatting happily when Pence came out of the base, a melancholy expression pasted on his face.

"Um guys.. I think you'd better take a look at this…"

The three friends stood in the doorway of their base, stunned at what they saw. Their base had been completely trashed. All the books and magazines had been torn apart, the boxes they used as chairs had been smashed, and there was offensive graffiti written all over the walls. Olette, utterly devastated, and on the verge of tears, chocked out a wail of "Who.. could of done something like this?"

Hayner scowled, clenched his fists in rage and said solemnly; "Seifer."

* * *

After the shock of seeing their base in such a disturbing state, the friends decided it would be best to call off their trip to the beach, and instead they all went over to Pence's house, which happened to be closest, and ended up spending the rest of the day playing video games, to help take their minds off the tragedy which had just occurred, with the exception of Olette, who chose to work on her history assignment instead.

The day after that happened to be Sunday, and the four friends agreed to try their best to try and repair all the damage done. It was after all, somewhat of a sanctuary to them.

They all pitched in and bought paint to cover the graffiti, asked the local shop keepers for any unneeded boxes and after a long days work, ended up making the base even more lively than before.

Satisfied but exhausted after their accomplishment, they all went home, too tired to anything else other then sleep. Which inevitably came quite easily to them. Even Hayner, who had made a habit of thinking about Seifer and all the desirable things he could do to him to make HIS life hell, instead of vice versa, before he fell asleep, crashed as soon as his body made contact with his bed.

* * *

Monday morning, Seifer woke up with a scowl on his face.

He had just had a nightmare about Hayner and himself as an old married couple, with Seifer as the woman.

He staggered out of bed groggily, scowl still present on his face. He reached the kitchen of his creaky old house, and poured himself a glass of light milk. He knew breakfast was supposedly the most important meal of the day, but somehow he could never manage to get past a glass of milk (which as far as he was concerned, WAS his breakfast). He heard her voice before he saw her, "Sei-hunny, you up?" She sauntered into the kitchen lazily and stared at his cup of milk.

"I thought I told you to have a decent breakfast" Seifer ignored her, and continued to drink his milk. His mother sighed wearily. "You've never been a morning person, but you're being a bit mean don't you think?" She looked at him, hurt by his cold demeanor towards her. It wasn't that he didn't like his mum, in fact he actually got along quite well with her, the majority of the time. But it never ceased to irritate him how nosy she was, and the fact that she worried over stupid trivial things like breakfast. Seifer was naturally a very independent person, and just liked doing things his own way without having her tell him what to do.

Like Seifer was usually in a bad mood in the mornings, his mother would be very calm and … "motherly like" as opposed to her _usual _personality, which happened to be extremely different to Seifers.

Seifer generally had a "difficult" personality, he was cocky, confident, some what strict, and hard headed, his mother had a very easy going personality, bubbly, carefree, and somewhat ditzy. She was the exact opposite of Seifer, in almost every possible way. The only thing they had in common were their looks. They both had light blonde hair and dark blue eyes. They were both very good looking.

Before she could lecture him anymore, Seifer made a dash to the front door, and started making his way to school with a sour expression pasted on his face. He had a very bad feeling about today.


	3. Shut Me Up

**Chapter Two**

**Shut me up** – Mindless Self Indulgence: "_I can't wait for you to shut me up, and make me hip like bad ass_"

He felt hesitation as he went to open the door to his classroom. He gulped. Something was wrong. He felt a strong negative force in the room he was about to enter. Seifer shook off the paranoid feelings. "You're being stupid," he thought to himself "Even if there IS trouble going on, I can handle it. The absurd rumours about Seifer Almasy fighting bears in the mountains with his bare hands alone didn't start for nothing!"

Seifer's anxious feelings about going to school that day ended up being pretty accurate, but he didn't have the time to be wondering if he had a sixth sense or something, because what was behind that door startled him.

By now he was fairly used to receiving filthy looks from Hayner, but something was different today.

He literally looked like he would very much like to stab Seifer in the eyes with the blunt pencil he was gripping firming in his hand and tear apart his throat if he were given the chance. Not only that, he was also receiving glares from two of Hayner's friends; Pence and Roxas. Olette was the only one not giving him a death stare, but the look she was giving him was even more confusing than the looks he was getting from the 3 boys. She didn't look angry, just very concerned, a look Seifer wasn't used to getting. Seifer tried to disregard their stares and strutted over to his two friends, who were looking as equally as confused as him.

"What the hell's going on?" he hissed at them quietly. "Clueless." Fuu said, impassively. "Fuu's right Seif' we just walked in and those guys kept giving us the same looks they were giving you y'know" Seifer snarled "Well it's pissing me off"

Just then, the teacher walked in. "Alright guys take your seats, we'll begin today with maths" A loud groan escaped from the mouths of pretty much all the students in the class.

Seifer cautiously made his way over to his seat, glanced at Hayner in the process, who had turned his concentration to the text book in front of him, flickering through the pages without even looking at them. Seifer, unable to stand the tension, leaned over and whispered aggressively "Oi, Chickenwuss"

Hayner continued frowning intensely at one of the pages in his book, clearly not paying attention to it as he seemed to not notice the book was upside down . Seifer made another attempt at trying to forced out whatever the reason was for the weird atmosphere which had been going on since he had first gotten to school but with no prevail, as Hayner proceeded to ignore Seifer.

Seifer sighed and one last effort to communicate with the stubborn boy. "Lamer I-" "JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!" Seifer was speechless. The sudden outburst was completely unexpected, apparently to the rest of the class, who had all turned their heads to stare at the boy in shock. "Is there a problem Mr. Bardus?" Hayner looked down at his text book and muttered quietly "No Miss", and with that, all his classmates turned back to their work, except for Hayner's friends, who were giving him worried looks, Seifer's friends, who were staring at him in shock, and Olette, who was giving Seifer a look of sympathy.

Unable to do his work, Seifer instead decided to rattle his brain to try to think of what he could've possibly done, to piss Hayner off this much (aside from all those years of teasing and mockery).

The teacher snapped Seifer out of his deep thoughts as she suddenly claimed to be missing the sheets she had photocopied for the days lesson. Walking out of the classroom hastily, as soon as she was gone, Hayner turned to look at Seifer and said angrily "Why'd you do it..?" "Do what?" Seifer replied, bewildered. "Do you seriously hate us THAT much? What did we ever do to you anyway?" Hayner stood up furiously. Figuring it would probably be better if he stood up too, Seifer did the same and asked , frowning "What are you-" Hayner cut him off "Did you ruin our base to get revenge on ME? You've always picked on ME, and when I started hanging out with Pence and Olette, you started being a bastard to them as well! You didn't have any issues with Roxas until he became friends with ME! Are you conspiring to make me friendless or something? WHY ARE YOU SUCH A DICK?" "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ON ABOUT LAMER?" Seifer roared back, realising this "conversation" wasn't going anywhere, he turned to ask one of Hayner's stupid friends what was going on. Before he could, Hayner screamed angrily "I'm so SICK of this!" and with a tremendous amount of force, shoved a too-surprised-to-react Seifer to the floor before connecting his fist with Seifer's shocked face. Blood trickled down Seifers nose as he grabbed Hayner's fist, just as he was about to strike Seifer again, and pushed Hayner back, pinning him down against the cool classroom floor with his strong hands tightly holding onto Hayner's wrists, which he was desperately trying to free from the stronger blondes grasp. By now the entire class surrounded them, perplexed by the sudden fight which had just taken place. Seeing their friend in the losing position, Roxas and Pence ran over to them, planning on pulling Seifer off a thrashing Hayner, only to be stopped by Olette. Puzzled, Roxas yelled at her "What are you doing Olette?" She gave him a look which silenced him which seemed to say "Leave them be, they have to sort this out themselves." Rai, who had also intended on breaking up the fight, was stopped by Fuu, who nodded at Olette with a look of understanding.

Suddenly, the door slammed open, followed by a loud voice demanding to know what was going on, the crowd of students let open an opening for their teacher, who had heard the loud ruckus on her way back to the classroom. "Alright boys break it up!" She said sternly, only to be ignored by the younger boy, who was bellowing the most insulting things he could come up with at the older blonde who was still pinning him down. Irritated by the lacking of awareness of her presence, she pulled out an abnormally large paper fan from a place unknown to all of mankind, and slammed it across the heads of the two boys with all her strength, at the same time. Satisfied by the silence caused by her particularly special "technique" of stopping the brawl, she told the two stunned boys to stand up and follow her, who obeyed without hesitation, still astonished by what had just happened.

"I don't know what that was about, but I don't EVER want to see it happen again. Understand?"

Seifer and Hayner both nodded glumly. "I'll see you two in my classroom after school, then we can discuss your punishment" And with that, she opened the door to the classroom expectantly, and the two boys walked in, ignoring the stares they received from their classmates, and sat in their empty seats without a word.

After that, the day seemed to go by exceedingly slow. And not just for the two rivals, the entire class seemed to be shaken by the fight earlier. The glaring looks and unexpected outbursts had stopped, but the tension in the air remained.

When the bell finally went, Hayner wasn't sure whether to be relieved that he would finally be able to escape the suffocating atmosphere caused by the stares he received from the rest of the class **, **or anxious about having to stay behind with the teacher and his enemy.

He knew that getting so extremely fired up over his base being destroyed was being a bit melodramatic (even Roxas and Pence hadn't been nearly as enraged as Hayner), and if it had been anyone else that had wrecked the place, he probably would've said a few "words" to them, then get over it. But for some reason, knowing that it was SEIFER who had done it, irritated him more than expected.

What he couldn't comprehend over the matter was that, for some reason, Seifer hadn't landed a single punch back. Hayner had known Seifer since they were only tiny, and knew for that matter, that Seifer Almasy wasn't one to take crap from anyone, so taking a punch to his face by Hayner, and not retaliating... Was something Hayner was definitely surprised about. He was still pondering about it when the teacher pulled out a chair from one of the desks in front of Hayner and Seifer and sat down, arms folded and legs crossed.

"Now.. About your punishment.." She mused for a split second before continuing, "Alright, I've decided."

The two boys held their breaths "You two will be in charge of tidying up the classroom every afternoon after school. Got it?" "But Miss-" Hayner started "No buts Mr. Bardus, consider yourselves lucky I didn't suspend you. This is just a warning, if I ever catch you both fighting again then you really will be suspended." She sighed "Go home for today, you can start your cleaning duties tomorrow."

It was unfortunate for both boys that they happened to live in the same direction. Seifer went first, he could feel Hayner glowering at him from behind. He spun around suddenly "Mind telling me what you were bitching about earlier"

"Why… " Hayner's face didn't glower anymore, instead he looked hurt. Seifer was taken aback. He had known Hayner his entire life and had never seen him pull an expression like that before (then again, he had never had Hayner full on attack him before either, or gotten a look of sympathy from Olette. He had had a lot of "firsts" that day). It made his chest throb painfully for reasons he could only wish he didn't have.

Hayner inhaled deeply and looked up at his rival with a determined expression on his face.

"You, me, struggle match, now!"

For a split second Seifer was surprised, but his lips soon stretched out into a wide grin, if there was one thing Seifer Almasy loved it was a decent struggle battle, and a struggle battle against Hayner was a more than decent match for him. Despite Hayner being somewhat weaker than Seifer, he was much more skilful than all the other strugglers, and Seifer always got a thrill from fighting him. It was just so much more appealing to beat out the crap out of HIM than anyone else.

"You're on chickenwuss."


	4. Disconnected

**Chapter Three**

**Disconnected** – Red Jumpsuit Apparatus "_You know you are, the center of my attention, and you leave me no choice, tripping on to the floor, looking at my reflection_"

The match begun when Hayner lunged forward towards the older blonde, swinging his struggle bat around wildly and aggressively. Seifer dodged it easily and spun his own bat in an attempt to whack Hayner in the back, but Hayner had spun around and ducked just in time as Seifers bat soared over Hayners head, barely missing it. Holding his bat in front of him like a sword, Hayner once again charged at Seifer, only to receive a hard impact to his gut, caused by a swift strike from his rival. He doubled over, clutching his stomach as his rival idly picked up the struggle balls which Hayner had lost when Seifer hit him. He glanced up at the blonde bully and glared at him as Seifer stated matter-of-factly "You're still so weak lamer". This caused Hayner to respond in just the way Seifer wanted him to. Infuriated, he stood up suddenly, ignoring the pain in his gut and ran at Seifer, randomly and uncoordinatedly swinging his bat, missing his speedy target with every swing. "C'mon chickenwuss" he called out in mid-battle "I'm beginning to think you're not even trying" Retreating from the continuation of attacks he had just performed, Hayner panted and clutched his struggle bat so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

Before he had the chance to avoid the attack, Hayner felt his body painfully slam against the concrete wall behind him by Seifer. He gasped unwillingly, noticing that Seifer had abandoned his struggle bat, and instead had one hand pressing against the wall, planted right next to Hayners head, and the other on his hips in a cocky manner.

Hayner's body went weak under Seifers stare and trembled ever so slightly when he felt Seifers hand touch his own. Smirking slightly, Seifer slowly moved his hand down from Hayners, to the struggle bat handle, which Hayner was still holding onto tightly, and gently pulled the bat out of Hayners grasp, dropping it to the ground.

"What makes you think you have enough ability to take ME on?" He sneered at the smaller boy.

"Did you honestly think you could beat me Lamer? Don't challenge me to a match when you know you have no hope (despite him saying this, Seifer was in fact glad Hayner had asked him to duel)" He pressed his body up against Hayner and whispered softly "Hayner". The way the bully had said his name sent shivers up Hayners spine. He didn't know exactly why though, so he shrugged it off as being shivers of "disgust" at the fact that Seifer had called him by, yes, his name. His PROPER name, not lamer, not chickenwuss, but his actual name. This would be the first time since they were just little kids.

As Seifer moved in closer to the younger boy, Hayner felt his face heat up. "Gedd'off me" He mumbled as he weakly tried to attempt at shoving the older boy off but to no prevail. If he truly tried, he probably could've pushed Seifer off him, but somehow he just couldn't muster the strength needed.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" Both Hayner and Seifer spun around in surprise to see Pence, alone, holding one of the discarded struggle bats in front of him defensively.

Seifer growled in annoyance and glared at the third party whilst slowly hoisting himself off the younger blonde.

Without a moments hesitation, Hayner bolted, what his destination was he didn't know, he just HAD to get out of there. He heard his name being called and loud footsteps behind him. But Hayner was much faster and fitter than Pence, and he soon lost him.

Once he'd reached the underground, Hayner figured it was safe to rest for a bit. He crouched down, hunched over, still panting from his tiring escape, and used his hands to cover his bright red face (Hayner assumed his face felt so hot from running).

"What the hell was that?" he muttered to himself. His hand still felt a tingling sensation where Seifer had touched it. He contemplated over the scenario which had just occurred.

"Let's see, I challenged Seifer to a struggle battle, I was just about to get my ass kicked when he pushed me up against a wall, called me by my ACTUAL NAME and …" Suddenly recalling the harsh words Seifer had said to him earlier, about him not being good enough, Hayners face burned with fury.

How dare that lowlife call him weak! Okay so maybe he wasn't quite as good as the bully but he definitely wasn't weak!

These thoughts filled Hayners mind as he sluggishly got up, and began walking home.

* * *

The next day was agony for Hayner, he was exhausted, due to the fact that he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep the night before (his mind still swirled with thoughts revolving around Seifers taunting words and the incomprehensible feelings he had gotten when he had been pushed up against a wall by the very person he despised so greatly), and he spent almost the entire day trying his best not to fall asleep in class. He already was being forced to help clean the classroom after school, he didn't need to get into any more trouble. He barely lasted an hour after arriving at school before he fell victim to the sleep demons, only to be awoken by a rough shake to his right shoulder. "Hey doofus get a hold of yourself we're in class not your bed" Hayner turned around lethargically to face the blonde boy sitting next to him, who was frowning with concern. "You look like shit. What did you do last night? Stay up all night jerking off to Pokemon" with that the boy smirked playfully. Back when Seifer and Hayner were younger and still mates, they would occasionally hang out at each others houses, watching movies and playing games. And somehow Seifer had managed to remember Hayners previous obsession with the lead character of 'Pokemon' . He had idolised the 2D boy greatly, even going so far as to copy his catch phrases. A young Seifer and Hayner would be outside catching bugs when Hayner would suddenly jump up randomly, with a ladybug between his fingers and shout with great triumph: "Gotta catch em all!".

Hayner scowled at his rival "yeah well at least I didn't watch CAREBEARS when I was a kid!"

Seifer blushed. Shit. He had forgotten that Hayner knew about that.

Seeing Seifers expression, Hayner grinned, realising he had the upperhand in this argument.

"That's right, if I recall correctly you used to always sleep with Secret bear am I right?"

Yeah. USED to. Right. If Hayner were ever to find out that Seifer still kept his beloved Carebear toy, and would even sleep with it on the occasional lonely night, Seifer would probably have to murder him.

Seifer glared at Hayner menacingly and growled "I don't know what deluded crap you're going on about but you'd better shut yer trap if you know what's good for ya". Hayner swallowed, he knew if he didn't stop then he would get a serious beating from his rival. But he was indeed enjoying himself a fair bit. And, in a sense, he was glad the bully had decided to argue with him, for it had definitely perked him up from his sleep deprived state.

The rest of the day went by reasonably smoothly. For once, Seifer and Hayner had managed NOT to get into an argument that disrupted the class. And for once, Hayner actually applied himself to the work they were doing in class. The harsh comments he had received from Seifer the day before had really shook him, they made him realise that no matter what it was he always seemed to lose to Seifer, and now he found himself feeling even more determined to beat him. And the first thing on Hayners "to-beat-Seifer-at" list was to get a higher score than him on their next exam. So instead of staring out the window, thinking of where he and his friends should go on the weekend, or about how much he hated Seifer and would love to kick his ass, he actually paid attention in class for once, and focused on what he was writing in his work book. Apparently the next exam his class would be having was going to be maths, which was pretty unfortunate for Hayner, who absolutely loathed the subject, but he was going to grit his teeth and bear it.

Despite his reasonably quiet day, cleaning the classroom after school with Seifer could've gone a little better.

For some reason, being alone in the classroom with him made Hayner feel uncomfortable and distracted, and it showed too.

Usually pretty coordinated, Hayner stumbled and dropped things, put items which had been left out in the wrong places, when it was obvious where they were SUPPOSED to go. As he scowled at himself for being such a klutz, he muttered "what's wrong with me" before picking up a large box full or art equipment that had been left out (which turned out to be surprisingly heavy, not that he would actually admit to that) and he struggled not to look like he was struggling as he carried the box over to the large cupboard at the back of the room.

He could feel Seifers eyes on him as he clumsily pulled one of the cupboard doors open whilst still holding the box and shook as he attempted to lift the box up and put it on the top shelf (as all the other shelves were already full of other things) and let out a startled cry as his grip on the box slipped and tumbled on top of him. Seifer rushed over "Lamer! Are you o-" he stopped at stared at the younger boy who was sprawled on the floor with the now empty box next to him and all of its belongings scattered across him, including a shattered vase which had been made by one of the other students. He looked like he was about to cry in frustration. Seifer sighed and held out a hand to help the obviously distressed boy up, only to have his hand swatted away. "Get away from me!" he barked, clutching the arm Seifer was about to touch tightly. He looked down and began putting the scattered items back into the box solemnly. The next thing Seifer did surprised Hayner, he crouched down beside him and started packing away the art equipment as well. Hayner stared at him. He was expecting something more along the lines of "You're such klutz chickenwuss" or "I knew you were stupid but this is ridiculous", but he was instead helping him to pack up. Just as Hayner looked down he felt Seifer grab his wrist and yank his arm up. Hayner flinched and tried to pull away but the other boys grip was too strong and firm. Seifer stared at Hayners arm thoroughly and said angrily "what the hell is this?" Hayner managed to snatch his arm away. "Nothing." He mumbled. "It's not nothing it's bleeding... A lot too!"

"All the more reason for you to get lost," Hayner smirked painfully "Wouldn't want to get any blood on your precious clothes would we". Seifer rolled his eyes and hurried over to the teachers desk to get some bandages, cursing when he realised their weren't any. "Stay here and don't move" he ordered the injured boy as he ran over to the Juniors classroom to get some. Hayner looked at him arm. He didn't get what Seifer was so worked up about, the cut he had received when a piece of glass had broken off the vase and sliced his skin was bleeding a river, but the cut wasn't THAT deep.

When Seifer had returned, Hayner had moved to one of the desks and was sitting on top on it, holding his injured arm. "Thought I told you not to move," Seifer muttered under his breath. He hurried over and kneeled down in front of Hayner (Hayner NEVER thought he would see the day that Seifer kneeled before someone) and gently lifted Hayners arm up to examine it and sighed deeply after a few moments. "Well it's not TOO deep, that's a relief" he said. "I could've told you that for free" Hayner thought to himself, but instead said curtly "What do you care". "I don't" Seifer replied "But it would be a real pain for the teacher to see you bleeding and accuse me of trying to stab you or something" he chuckled as he calmly disinfected the wound and wrapped it up securely. The entire time he was doing it, Hayner couldn't help but stare at him. "Lamer can you stop staring, it's kinda making me uncomfortable" Hayner scowled and looked away "I can't help it, your ugliness is just so mesmerising". Seifer rolled his eyes and held up Hayner's hand with triumph "There. You owe me for this lamer". Hayner examined his bandaged arm and looked at his rival in awe "Since when did you know how to be a nurse?". Seifer chuckled darkly "Being the leader of the disciplinary committee isn't easy you know. Sometimes things get out of hand and brawls happen. You pick stuff up when lowlifes play dirty and try to pull a knife out on you". This time it was Hayners turn to roll his eyes. "You're an idiot" he said exasperatedly. "Gee thanks Seifer, is that to much to ask?", Hayner turned his head away to hide his embarrassed face. "Thanks." he mumbled before walking out of the classroom.

Seifer sighed and put the box away, then went to follow Hayner to report to their teacher, who had been sitting at her desk in the office marking test papers, that they had finished.

"Good work boys, see you tomorrow", as soon as she had finished her dismissal, Hayner was off like a rocket, without so much as a goodbye to neither the teacher or Seifer.

The second thing on Hayners 'Things-to-beat-Seifer-at' list was to flog his ass in a Struggle match. He had vowed that he would train with all his might until he would finally be a formidable opponent.

But before that he would have to go to a good training spot. And he knew just the place.


End file.
